Going into the draft, there was a lot of speculation about the Raiders potentially taking an offensive tackle with the 13th-overall pick.
The Raiders made an effort to re-sign veteran right tackle Jermaine Eluemunor in March, but his price in free agency was more than what the team was willing to pay. His departure left a void at offensive tackle that could have been addressed with the 13th pick, but GM Tom Telesco said the value of Georgia tight end Brock Bowers at pick 13 was too much to ignore.
The Raiders circled back to offensive tackle in the third round when they drafted D.J. Glaze, but there aren’t many who project Glaze to earn the starting job in his first NFL season.
That leaves third-year offensive tackle as the only viable option (at the moment) for the Raiders at right tackle and according to team insider Tashan Reed, Munford has been getting all the first-team reps at right tackle during offseason team activities.
“Thayer Munford is entrenched as the starting right tackle,” Reed reported this week at The Athletic.
“He didn’t leave the starting lineup during practice, which shouldn’t be shocking considering his only real competition on the roster is rookie DJ Glaze. While Munford has made several starts at left tackle and right tackle during his first two years in the league, he has never been a full-time starter. He once struggled with his confidence, but that’s no longer the case. He believes he’s fully capable of being the long-term answer at right tackle.”
There’s a chance that veteran offensive lineman Andrus Peat will factor into the mix at right tackle, but it looks like Peat will only be an emergency option at multiple positions along the Raiders’ offensive line.
Peat signed a modest deal with the Raiders in May that will count just $2.23 million against the salary cap, but he was a player that the Saints say they wanted to bring back.
“We made attempts to get him re-signed and he chose to go someplace else,” Saints GM Mickey Loomis said this week. “Andrus was a good pick for us, played for us for a long time, I’m excited for him. I know he’s got a new chapter he’s probably excited about a new team. I wish him nothing but the best of luck.”
There’s no way the Raiders planned to address the right tackle position with a one-year deal worth a little more than $2 million, so the path for Munford to win the starting job isn’t going to be complicated. If he can beat out a third-round pick (who many believed to be a fourth-round value), the former seventh-round pick should be the Raiders starting right tackle when the team travels to Los Angeles for the regular season opener against the Chargers.
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